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JTMB's Bird Art (1 Viewer)

Great Blue Heron

Hi folks,

Thanks, Ken, Arthur, Tim, Mike, Colleen and Gaby!

Here's another watercolor I just finished. It's about 10 x 14 inches in an Arches spiral-bound sketchbook. The photo does not have the vibrancy of the original, but gives a fairly good sense of it. The reference photo was taken at a large arboretum in Seattle, adjacent to University of Washington campus, along Lake Washington.

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Two very nice efforts here, John. I particularly like the Jay and how you've captured the bird in the shade of the canopy. It's in an interesting pose, too - all the angles are right. I find birds can be tricky when perched above you, even when they sit still. The way the body sits 'above' the branch, in particular, can be a bxxxxr to draw.
Very nicely done reflection and foliage painting with the Great Blue.

Good to see you improving like this.

Russ
 
ah! that just sings peaceful warmth - a tonic on a freezing cold day here in Franche-Comté! and the heron is the gin in said tonic!
 
Hi John,

Like the Jay, unusual angle well handled. The heron looks very nice, reflections very nicely handled, look forward to seeing the piece finished...
 
just saw SolV's update..very kind! I was set to be in NY with family at Xmas and had this very V Thrush lined up as my reward for good behaviour, but then the big snow fell and plans all unwound...

as for John's heron- that's a really good light and I do like the way you see tree and water first and heron almost second
I keep coming back to this heron and wondring why my comment never gets posted. . . . I really ought to hit the keys harder when typing! Smart job, John.
 
Wow, I've been so busy with classes and related projects that I've neglected checking in the forum - and my own thread :-O - as often as I need too. Thanks Mike, Russ, Gaby, Nick, Alan, Colleen, Ed, Tim and Arthur for all the comments and encouragement! Great motivation to keep at it, though I'm hopelessly hooked so no concerns really about slacking off...!

I thought I would share a WIP here. This is an 18 x 24 inch oil piece that is the first painting I'm doing for an independent project oils class at the local college (where I am just about the most 'senior' - chronologically speaking, anyway - student, which has both its advantages and disadvantages). Basically, I took the three normal progression oil painting classes last year and then you can continue with project classes if you wish. You pick a subject(s), get ok from the instructor and then just check in with her/him periodically. Good to be in the studio environment with the other students at least on occasion.

Anyway, my interests are landscapes and wildlife (95% birds, of course) and so this first painting is based on a photo I took in 2009 at the mouth of the Salmon River on the Oregon coast. I was out early one morning birding before a watercolor workshop class starrted and also was taking a bunch of reference photos for landscapes, with a beautiful summer morning, low morning light and a wonderful setting. When...in flew a flock of about fifteen Great Egrets that started to forage close to where I was. That species is not very common in that area, so it was a great opportunity. [Post #215 in this thread has a smaller and earlier watercolor version that I did earlier on this same basic scene, for comparison.] For this comp, I reduced the number or egrets and focused in a bit, but still wanted to capture the overall landscape with the birds as an integral part. I'm learning more about composition and so modified a number of things in the actual scene to improve it (hopefully!) but not so much that someone familiar with the area wouldn't accept it as being there. The birds are not done, some more work in needed on the water and the foreground, and when it's dry enough, I'm going to attempt to scumble some mist and fog into the middle and distant tree masses.

I've done way more watercolor than oils, but want to move toward oils as my primary medium, so any advice or comments from you folks would be most appreciated.

(And yes, Colleen, I know what crits Jo would have on the lines here - I tried and it is better than it would have been, but I think I'll be trying this one again in oil, possibly in a 24 x 36 size, rather than doing major changes here. ;)).

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John: The morning light in this work is magnificent. Your oil painting classes are really paying off in a big way! We are coming in your direction in early April to attend the Olympic Peninsula Birdfest in Sequim. Also, if there's still room, to take a three-day birding cruise in Puget Sound/San Juan Islands. I'm expecting to do a major bit of sketching and reference photography! Rhinoceros Auklets and Marbled Murrelets oh my!!!
 
Thanks Nick, Tim, Ken and Sid!

Nick - well, the Oregon coast (at least on the type of day in the painting!) certainly qualifies in my mind as how I would picture at least one version of Arcadia!

Sid - enjoy your time out here. We don't get over to the Olympic peninsula as much as we should...if we ever move away from here, we'll regret that. Pelagic species are the weakest area of my birding knowledge, due to a tendency to get a bit queasy (or more than a bit) when out in the open ocean, which makes an all-day trip where they don't turn around for anything or anyone a bit challenging! I'm on the board of WOS (Washington Ornithological Society - www.wos.org) and our annual conference this year is going to be in Port Angeles in June. Unfortunately I don't attend the conferences because summer is the busy season for the band I'm in.

For a couple years, I did a monthly volunteer bird survey inside the City of Seattle's Cedar River watershed, a very large area now being managed for old growth forest and off limits to the public. Last year, there was a construction project going on near the boundary of the watershed and that project got stopped for a few months because the watershed biologists found a Marbeled Murrelet nest not too far from the construction site. Totally amazing that the birds flew in that far from the salt water to nest at that location - but that's what they do, strange as it is.

Enjoy your visit - here's hoping you get good sketching weather. This is a phenomenal area to sketch and do plein air - birds or just landscapes.

Oh, and here is a quick one I did last night. This White-breasted Nuthatch is about 9 x 7 inches in watercolor, and was based on a magazine photo. We have Red-breasted Nuthatches in my immediate area - the White-breasted ones are in different parts of the state.

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That's great John - the time limits have paid dividends here; the simplicity of the forms and colours work really well. Nice one.
 
We have Red-breasted Nuthatches in my immediate area - the White-breasted ones are in different parts of the state.

View attachment 306115

Nice little painting John, capturing their upside-down essence.

We have just the opposite situation here. White-breasted typical and Red-breasted atypical. Unfortunately we've never had them on our feeders. That I think might give me some chance of sketching them. We do sometimes see them right outside our cabin in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and I should spend more time trying to sketch them there. One memorable sighting was a Red-tailed Hawk chasing one around a dead tree.
 
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